There are a large number of cutting tools on the market for various applications in the medical or dental field, in particular for applications involving drilling, tapping, milling, smoothing, forming and other cutting functions in a bone or a tissue. For example, in the dental field, drills are used for drilling holes in the jawbone. A tap is then used, and perhaps also a profiling tool, so that an anchoring support can be screwed in order to fix a tooth crown. In the medical field, profiling, smoothing and milling tools are used in order to drill, profile or smooth the bony material or to remove deposits.
Most of the cutting tools available on the market are tools made from steel of medical quality, which are manufactured at least partially by machining with removal of chips. These tools generally being made for multiple use, inter alia on account of their relatively high manufacturing costs. There is, however, an increasing demand and for disposable tools, i.e. for once-only use, on account of the risks of the transmission of diseases, but also because of the costs of the sterilization of reusable tools.
RU-C-2 167 618 discloses a disposable needle-type drill for bone tissue. The drill comprises a casing made in the form of a tube or continous rod with a flat or square portion. A front working part of the drill is provided with cutting members formed as longitudinally arranged needles. This known drill may be used for performing operations in traumatology, neuro-surgery etc.
Drills for the insertion of dental implants, that can be disposed of after each use, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,897. The drill includes a rotational drive portion in the form of a metal rod with a first end and a second end. The first end is intended to be connected to a drilling apparatus. The second end is connected to an active cutting portion made of plastic overmolded on the second end of the metal rod. The drill further includes a metal insert portion coupled to the active cutting portion to serve as a sharp edge for the active cutting portion.
The disposable rotary cutting tools disclosed in these prior art documents comprise parts being injection-molded or complexly machined and not making it possible to carry out simple modifications of the tool for different applications. Further more, plastic parts for such tools are usually not readily accepted in invasive applications because of the risks of breakage of the plastic and of the deposit of plastic particles during the surgical operation.